


how do you mend a broken heart?

by miss_brown_eyes



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Jane Foster is actually a medical doctor, Poor Bucky Barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-06-01
Packaged: 2018-07-11 12:15:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7050577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_brown_eyes/pseuds/miss_brown_eyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jane is the lead doctor on the team to restore Bucky's mind to its former state. Unfortunately, his pain runs far deeper than the coding that HYDRA programmed into his head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	how do you mend a broken heart?

**Author's Note:**

> So this isn’t exactly a part two to my previous Jane/Bucky story, but I felt in the mood to write something angsty and this is what resulted. This fic is a somewhat a blend of the comics and movies. Enjoy xx

“Since when have you been a medical doctor?” Steve questioned curiously, rubbing his hands together as he seated himself on a hard chair in the laboratory.

Jane Foster gave him a soft smile as she looked up from the information pertaining to a certain friend of Steve’s, which was being displayed before them in a glowing, holographic form. A Stark invention, naturally. Locating the note she was searching for, she touched it and enlarged the data so Steve and the rest of the medical team in the room were able view it easier.

“Since always,” she replied evenly. “An astrophysicist seemed like a good cover up for a while, and I’m not going to lie, it eventually became a hobby of mine. The stars are fascinating. Plus it helps that both of my parents were avid astronomers in their free time.” She was well aware that Steve had a difficult time with accepting and trusting people who blatantly lied about their identity. After the incident between S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA in Washington D.C., even she found it a challenging to discern between who was friend or foe.

“Well, we’re lucky to have you a part of the team, Dr. Foster.” Steve didn’t appear too phased with the new knowledge of her true title—instead his tone was laced with gratitude.

If it weren’t for Tony, she wouldn’t have heard of this complication in the first place. He reached out to her bitterly, yet he must have known deep down in his heart that attempting to save this man’s life, even if he had murdered his parents, was ultimately the right thing to do. In reality, Jane had never dealt with a diagnosis like Barnes’ before, but she was determined to give it her best effort regardless. That’s what Jane did. She refused to quit.

Steve prompted her to reveal her team’s recent findings surrounding the mystery of Barnes’ condition with, “So what did you call me here for again?” She could tell he was anxious by his persistent foot tapping.

Deciding to cut to the chase, Jane said, “We’re going to take Barnes out of the cryostasis. We believe we have found a procedure which will safely and permanently remove the implants HYDRA programmed into his mind.” By this point, Steve was on the edge of his seat, his eyes growing wider with every word she spoke. She was beyond proud of the progress that her team had made on Barnes. It had only been three months since he had asked to return under the ice. “As you probably remember,” she continued, “HYDRA originally took control of his mind by fabricating memories and warping reality through continuous sensory deprivation and electrocution.”

She swiped past several haunting and disturbing images of Barnes that were on file exposing the methods he had been subjected to during his enslavement under HYDRA. Her fingers finally landed on the plan of action she and her team were prepping to execute on Barnes. Several areas of his brain were lit to highlight where they were going to operate.

“In the most basic terms, we are planning to completely erase the coding that turns Barnes into a killing machine by carefully removing the brain cells that are currently storing the information.” The part she was not going to mention to Steve was that it was incredibly risky. In fact, this specific medical area was only recently beginning to make significant progress. Jane had a lot of fear brewing deep down inside of her. She wasn’t sure if she would be able to forgive herself if she caused the death of Steve’s best friend, whom he had been searching for desperately these last two years.

He was counting on her.

“How long is this going to take?” he asked, a frown crossing his face with the realization of the scale of this procedure.

“We’re estimating 16 hours,” came Jane’s short reply.

He nodded. “Let’s do what we have to do.”

-

The operation on Barnes went unbelievably smooth in Jane’s opinion. After removing him from the cryostasis, they immediately sedated him, and then proceeded to remove a small portion of his skull in order to evacuate the unwelcomed brain cells. The surgery took approximately 12 hours. On the other side of the sterile room sat a majority of the Avengers clan, including Tony Stark. An audible sigh escaped out of everyone’s mouths once Jane informed them of her team’s success. Or rather hopeful success. Steve arose from his chair and wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug.

Weeks went by until the medical team was finally able to determine whether or not the operation had actually been a triumph. She and the Avengers stood behind a one-way glass, apprehensively observing Barnes’ reaction to an agent reciting over a speaker system the words that unlocked the murderous assassin within him. He sat on the end of an examination table, legs dangling lazily and hands resting softly in his lap. Jane noticed that another team, or perhaps Tony, had built him a new arm that appeared sturdier and stronger than his previous limb.

The agent finished the last word, and although panic was clearly written across his face throughout the entire script reading, nothing abnormal occurred. He remained unmoving, his gaze blank and passive. All of a sudden, the Avengers began to cheer and clap, wide smiles plastered on everyone’s faces. She wound up in a sea of bodies that were embracing and congratulating her.

She was overwhelmed with happiness by the fact that she had accomplished her mission in helping restore this broken man’s life.

To the Avengers, Dr. Jane Foster was their hero.

-

Screaming.

Pounding.

Despair.

Jane jolted awake in her dark room to the sound of somebody furiously hammering on her door. Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest in confusion and fright.

“What the hell Foster!”

The voice unmistakably belonged to Barnes. His fist continued to hit her locked door. She glanced at her clock on the short table beside her bed. The bright numbers shone 2:30 am. Jane was normally a brave person or at least she tried to be. Confronting angry and unstable people were a part of her job; however, for some reason, listening to Barnes scream curses at her from the other side of her door shook her to the core. Without even asking, she knew that his anger meant she had made an error.

“Open this goddamn door!”

Suddenly, multiple sets of footsteps resounded down the solid surface of the hallway, and Barnes grunted in frustration as he was forcefully pulled away from her door. She could hear Steve, Natasha, and Sam from behind the entrance of her room trying to settle him down with calm words of reason and clarity. She knew that he would not rest until she confronted him face to face so she took a deep breath and slowly turned the doorknob.

The sight that resided before her made all of the joy she had felt about rescuing Barnes dissipate into nothingness. Steve and Sam had their arms interlocked with either of his as they held him firmly against the wall, while Natasha whispered gentle words in Russian in attempt to appease his episode. Any progress she had made was in vain though when he spotted Jane over Natasha’s shoulder. Jane bit her bottom lip as he began screaming at her all over again. The other Avengers looked at her in annoyance and exasperation.

Before they could stop him, Barnes broke free from their hold and lunged at Jane, who visibly flinched, but otherwise held her ground. He was her fault. She had taken a risk to awaken him from his frozen sleep for the sake of fixing him.

Jane wholeheartedly assumed he was going to attack her, throw her to the ground and punch her with his bionic arm until she was black and blue. What happened instead shocked her and the trio who had nearly seized his arms to throw him back against the wall once more.

Barnes sank to his knees at her feet and began to choke on painful sobs. Hesistantly, Jane imitated his position by lowering herself to the ground so that they were nearly eye level.

She did not say anything.

“You—you were supposed to make me forget,” Barnes accused, staring deep into her brown, ample eyes.

How foolish Jane had been to assume that she had simply healed everything about this man. Perhaps he was healed from turning into a robot, yet his heart on the other hand, his heart was obviously still very much torn apart, jagged piece causing him to ceaselessly bleed. She felt the hot sting of tears starting to well in her own eyes. So much pain. She wanted to make it stop, but she couldn’t.

“I’m so sorry, Bucky,” she whispered sorrowfully, a tear slipping down her cheek.

His arms found their way around her petite frame, holding onto her as if he would dissolve into a puddle on the floor if he let go. He began to sob even harder than before, his entire body strenuously shaking. Jane tried to comfort him by soothingly running her fingers along his back in a slow, steady motion.

“Every night I see them,” Bucky cried. “I see the horror in their face before I kill them. God—I can’t take it anymore.”

Jane had almost forgotten about the Avengers standing there. They wore concerned and deeply heartsick expressions.

“I’m sorry, Bucky,” she repeated and continued to speak over and over in his ear, letting him grasp onto her and empty his grief until he had nothing left to release. When he had finished, he was fast asleep in her arms, clearly worn from the energy he had exerted. She asked Steve, Sam, and Natasha if they would help her transport him to her bed because she wanted to keep watch over him with what little time they had left of the night.

After they had tucked him comfortably into her bed, Jane curled up in her armchair that resided in the corner of her room feeling incredibly weary herself.

Bucky’s journey to recovery had just begun, and the incident that occurred tonight was simply proof that they still had a long way to go before even half of his heart was mended.

He wouldn’t have to do it alone.

Steve, Natasha, Sam, T’Challa, Vision, Wanda, Rhodey, and even Tony would be there to aid him, to support him, to be a friend, a listening ear.

Not to mention she would do whatever she could to assist him as well. She was his doctor after all. Or at least one of them.

Her lids drooped lazily over her glossy eyes.

Tomorrow was a new day.


End file.
